Ravindra Jadeja in action© BCCI
India began their dress rehearsal for the upcoming Champions Trophy with the three-match ODI series against England. The Rohit Sharma-led side features of five spinners in the form of Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, and Varun Chakaravarthy. Recently, former Chennai Super Kings batter S Badrinath stated that the inclusion of Jadeja in India’s ODI squad against England left him “surprised”.
According to Badrinath, Jadeja’s chances of finding a place in the Playing XI are very slim as India are likely to go ahead with Washington as their spin bowling all-rounder.
“There are a few spots which are a little bit tricky. I am honestly surprised Ravindra Jadeja is in the squad. I didn’t expect him to be in the squad because there is very little space for him in the XI. So why would you actually take a player in the squad who might not feature in the actual playing XI? So that is a little bit tricky,” said Badrinath on Star Sports’ show ‘Game Plan’.
Badrinath further praised spinner Kuldeep Yadav and stated that skipper Rohit has been backing him, ever-since he took over the captaincy.
“Rohit likes him. Rohit has been backing Kuldeep Yadav since he took over the captaincy. He does whatever the other spinners don’t do. Kuldeep Yadav is a wrist spinner. He is slower through the air,” said Badrinath.
“He is brave. He is the best option to go to in the middle overs. We have seen many of these foreign teams. They find it hard to read a bowler like Kuldeep Yadav,” he added.
The upcoming ODI series against England will also be a tough test for star batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who miserably failed to leave a mark in the recent red-ball outings.
They were the top two run-getters of the 2023 World Cup with Kohli scoring 765 and Rohit smashing 597.
Since that World Cup, which India let slip in the final afer going unbeaten throughout, the two have only featured in a three-match ODI series loss to Sri Lanka where Rohit scored two fifties while Kohli didn’t have a great run.
(With PTI Inputs)
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